Impact at small vs large companies

I’ve noticed many senior engineers struggle to find their place in large companies. There’s also a common fear that many ambitious engineers have that they’d work on tiny, boring pieces of massive initiatives at a large company; so they prefer to stay at small companies to “have more impact.”

For this discussion, I’ll define an “impactful” project as one that is a top priority for the company and is likely to get you praise and/or a promotion.

If you’re at a large company, you need to be aware if you’re working on a dead-end, incremental or “keeping the lights on” initiative and instead, inject yourself in the work that the organization says is the most important. Too many talented folks confirmation bias their thoughts that big companies are dead-ends and jump ship; or flail, wondering why they’re not getting promoted or why more “impactful” work isn’t being given to them.

At a small company, there’s an increased likelihood that you’re working on one of the most important things, by default. The startup is resource strapped and can only invest in the initiatives with the greatest return on investment. So naturally, you’re going to be very impactful because there’s no room to work on anything else.

At a large company, resources are more plentiful, so there are more initiatives going on in parallel. The org can invest in work that either keeps the lights on or incrementally moves less important numbers. Hence, there’s an increased chance that you’re hired into an area where you may struggle to feel utilized and fail to get promoted.

So how do you find the projects that are important to the business?

• Ask your manager which initiatives their success is tied to (there’s usually at least one project they’re most worried about or that their boss cares about). If you don’t get an answer, you might have dead-end manager or there’s misalignment in the chain (both not great signs). You can also go higher up in the chain to extract this information as to what your area is on the hook for.
• Alternatively, like at my employer, there’s a widely circulated and quarterly-updated, ranked list of the top 4–7 most important initiatives for the company. Look at the list, see if your area/work/projects maps to an item on the list and you’ll have a sense for the range of possible “impact” you can have.

So how do you inject yourself into those ambitious/important/impactful initiatives? There are many approaches here, but I’ll share a few that worked for me.

• If you can sell yourself and your accomplishments really well, cold email or source an intro to the VP/Director at the top of the relevant area (which is also a solve for the previous point on finding impactful projects). Ask what are the most important projects, or who you might be able to speak with for more information about a particular initiative, or boldly position yourself and how you can help them achieve their goals. You may or may not get an answer.
• Alternatively, if the timing is right and there’s headcount, talk to the hiring manager and jump ship to that area. Note: there might already be some ambitious at the helm trying to make their career with this initiative and you may want to reconsider or humble yourself into a learning mode and then carve out your own impact when that initiative scales over time.
• Or, if you’re into the lottery, make your own luck with some side initiative (like a hack project) and try to pitch that internally to relevant parts of the business. If the timing and idea are right, you could find yourself at the start of a new venture within the company.

There’s implicit competition for these impactful opportunities at a large org. And you might have to stick it out in a dead-end area until you either have a track record of strong delivery or develop valuable expertise. However, with your new awareness of the low ceiling of impact that you were likely hired into, you can avoid frustration and years of career standstill.